How lucky am I? Well read on and you'll find out. It's been an eventful month!

I recently spent a day doing radio interviews about my newest book Discover America: From Sea to Shining Sea and about the Playtex Baby campaign I'm currently creating portraits for. Here are the links to the shows. It'd take a while to listen to them all but you could click on one or two. (have fun counting the "um's" and stumbles I make...hahaha)

My favorite interviewer was Larry and his cohost Robin in Orlando, FL with the source 96.3 FM 1370
He almost made me cry he was so kind. Hear the interview by clicking on the following link...

And finally, that Saturday, I participated in a local Book and Chalk Art Festival, signing books at my publisher's table. It was fun to share and talk about my book with many parents, teachers, kids and art lovers.

PAPER: My absolute favorite paper of all time was Bright White Fabriano Uno paper...but that is discontinued...KIND OF. They replaced it with the new paper I use and I think it's pretty much just as great. I buy packs of it. It's called...

"Pledge of Allegiance" first published in a magazine called "The Youth's Companion," written by Francis Bellamy.

1896

Flag with 45 stars Utah (January 4, 1896)

1897

Adoption of State Flag Desecration Statutes — By the late 1800's an organized flag protection movement was born in reaction to perceived commercial and political misuse of the flag. After supporters failed to obtain federal legislation, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and South Dakota became the first States to adopt flag desecration statutes. By 1932, all of the States had adopted flag desecration laws.

In general, these State laws outlawed: (i) placing any kind of marking on the flag, whether for commercial, political, or other purposes; (ii) using the flag in any form of advertising; and (iii) publicly mutilating, trampling, defacing, defiling, defying or casting contempt, either by words or by act, upon the flag. Under the model flag desecration law, the term "flag" was defined to include any flag, standard, ensign, or color, or any representation of such made of any substance whatsoever and of any size that evidently purported to be said flag or a picture or representation thereof, upon which shall be shown the colors, the stars and stripes in any number, or by which the person seeing the same without deliberation may believe the same to represent the flag of the U.S.

Oh how those words out of my children's mouth in just the first week of summer drive me mad! And then I have to realize...these kids have been taught, entertained, engaged by a teacher in a classroom every day for the past 9 months. Of course they are bored.

So beyond getting them all into a semi routine of chores, piano practice, and reading time, what can you do to get past the summer boredom and encourage creativity with your kids? Well, here are a few ideas...

1. Get out into Nature.

take a hike or a walk or simply a trip to the park and point out COLORS, SHAPES, TEXTURES, NEGATIVE SPACES (space between the leaves and branches etc.)

collect a bag of rocks, pebbles, leaves, feathers, petals, etc. as you go

when you get home, let your children recreate their feelings about the experience using the collected items or simply have fun with them in a more fantastical way.

2. Take a trip to a local Art Museum. (great rainy day activity)

peruse the art and have each child find their favorite piece- chat about what they like about it

bring a sketchbook along and have the kids copy their favorite work of art

make up silly stories to go along with each work of art - Once upon a time...

3. Paint each other's faces and put on a play.

buy a set of face paints and go to town.

if you are stuck for ideas, there are plenty to choose from online

4. Make Lego sculptures

create scenes like a relief sculpture

create statues

you could even have them recreate famous works of art in legos

5. Make your own custom stuffed animal/creature

Have your child draw a character on a large piece of paper (filling it)

Trace around each part of the character adding 1/2" all the way around

cut out the pieces you traced

Place on a double layer of fabric and cut out each piece

Put right sides of fabric together and sew around the edge of each piece, leaving a little hole at least 2" wide in one spot for stuffing later

turn right side out and stuff with stuffing

hand sew stuffing holes together and then parts together

tack on accessories or draw them on.

6. Go to the library, have your child choose 1 picture book and make a day for it.

Create a whole day centered around that picture book

then have your child choose their favorite scene from the book and copy it

OR have your child continue the story or create their own sequel to the the book, creating the words AND the illustrations for it.

7. Create clay or playdough self portraits including things you like to do.

8. Attend a summer community art class or camp or summer art festivals.

9. Print out the Printables from the link above and let your kids go to work

coloring pages

how to draw pages

10. Conclude the summer month or months of creativity with an ART SHOW.

Set aside a night for an art show for your children's work at home or at a local public building or church.

Have your children create invitations for the event and invite family and friends

As everyone to dress up to make it more sophisticated and fancy

Buy cheap frames from ikea or local thrift store to frame or display art

have your children be prepared to talk about their art to the attendees

make sure to have refreshments at the event

And there you have it! I can't guarantee that your kids won't still say, "I'm BORED." That just seems to be ingrained in nearly every child to annoy their parents with. However, I can promise it will be said LESS often.

To give you a jump start on this list (number 8 specifically), I can refer you a great free event being held tomorrow in Salt Lake City, Utah. KSL's family book festival. I'll be signing books there from 1pm til at least 2pm. Hope to see you!

I'm a freelance illustrator working in the children's book industry. I love kids and raising my own 4 children. They are the inspiration and the passion behind all I do in art and in life. See my website at JulieOlsonbooks.com